Pangasinan State University

URDANETA CITY CAMPUS

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT
HOA 212 – HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 2

RSW MT-01 : “RESEARCH WORK TITLE”

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. CONTENT A
2. CONTENT B
3. CONTENT N
4. REFERENCES

LENCHICO, CHANTY G. ARCH. ZALDY FELIX CORPUZ

Student Instructor

The vast Roman Empire spanning from the main lands of Italy, Greece extending up to England &
France in the north, as well as encircled around the Mediterranean Sea confronting with Asia Minor &
North Africa was subject to dismantling due to lack of central power.
• The vast empire was divided into Western & Eastern empires.
• The rich western province centered around Rome was obviously the target for invaders who destroyed
the city. These confrontations resulted in the migration of artisans, craftsmen, masons to other
developing countries – eastern province which were less hazardous.
• Due to this fact the WP faced discontinuation of construction tradition & caused overall deteoriation
in building skills.
• On the contrary, the eastern province which accepted the migrated population was provided with
continuation of Roman structural techniques.
• The western empire was centered around Rome while the Eastern empire flourished around
Costantinople (currently, Istanbul), which was strategically located on trade route by sea – connecting
Asia & North Africa by Europe.

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Christianity was born in Judea – a place in eastern province of the Roman empire, which spread
towards the north & west even against the backdrop of great opposition & ultimately accepted as state
religion.
• The formulation phase of Christianity & its architecture can be considered from Constantine period
(300 AD) to Charlemagne (800 AD – French ruler).
• The development of Christian Architecture thus can be divided into the following phases:
300 AD 800 AD 1,200 AD 1,500 AD 1,700AD

EARLY CHRISTIAN ROMANESQUE GOTHIC RENAISSCANCE

& BYZANTINE

In these phases, Architectural Development experienced the formulation phase, alterations &
development in plans, profile surroundings & concluded with imitation of classical structures &
mannerism. The development of Christian architecture in general proved beneficial in establishing new
norms, new construction features, new materials, different types of façade treatments & also
versatile construction analysis. The apses proved beneficial not only for the religious architecture but
also for secular, domestic, commercial & Mediterranean development.

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 EVOLUTION OF CHURCH FORMS

FROM AGORA TO BASILICAN CHURCH

Greece
• Agora (Assembly or gathering place)
•Served as a marketplace

Rome
• Forums – centre Roman public life
• Venue for public speeches, criminal trials & gladiatorial matches.
• Basilica – part of Forum.
• Served as place for giving justice & transacting business.
• The layout of Basilicas was, by extension used for Christian churches, having the same form.

A TYPICAL BASILICAN CHURCH

Commonest form of the early church.
 Unlike the earlier Roman phase, the interiors were given more importance than exterior.
 Rectangular hall, timber-roofed with coffers & richly glided ceiling (hiding the roof truss) on nave.
 Usually with one or two aisles to each side of the central nave separated by rows of rustic marble
columns, sometimes carrying flat entablatures & sometimes, rows of arches.
 The width of aisles was half that of the central nave.
 Apse at one end facing the principal entrances at the other end.
 Bema / Transept – a raised platform where altar was placed & from where the clergy
officiated.
 A courtyard (atrium) having a central fountain for ablutions & surrounded by colonnaded
ambulatory.

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PLAN OF A TYPICAL E.C. BASILICA PLAN AND VIEW OF TYPICAL E.C.

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. BASILICA

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 PARTS OF AN EARLY CHRISTIAN BASILICA

Narthex – corresponding to entrance foyer, preceding the nave.

 The nave & bema receive light from clerestory above the aisles & were pierced with windows.

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 Above aisles & between clerestory windows, the walls may be faced with marble, or mosaics made
up from small tesserae of coloured glass.
 The nave terminates into a ‘triumphal arch’, perhaps having iridescent (brightly coloured &
changing) mosaics.
 The semicircular walls of the apse ended into a dome, whose interiors had mosaics depicting
narrative scenes from Bible or single figures seen against stylised landscapes or plain gold grounds.
 The flooring was of grey-white & black marble, inlaid with geometric patterns of coloured marble.
 The columns, capitals & similar features from old Roman buildings were frequently reused to
enhance the liveliness of the interiors.
 In the new churches, arches were more often used to span between columns of a colonnade instead
of flat entablatures.

BASILICA OF OLD ST. PETERS, ROME

 Present day St. Peters in Vatican City – a
rebuilding of a totally different design & on a
substantially enlarged scale built over the
historical site of the Circus of Nero under the
rule of Emperor Constantine I in c. 320AD.
 The original church survived without much
change until towards the end of 15th Century
& the nave for another century. Remains of
old foundation are present below the present
flooring but details of atrium are obscure.
 Dimensions: 110.0m long x 64.0m wide with
double aisles on both sides. The nave was
divided from aisles by 22 varied (size &
colour), huge & antique marble columns with equally varied capitals supporting the nave walls on a
horizontal entablature, while similar numbers of shorter columns carrying arcades divided aisle
from aisle.
 It was built in the shape of Latin cross, with a gable roof, timbered on inside & at 30.0m high at
centre.
 An atrium known as Garden of Paradise stood at the entrance with5 doors.
 The nave ended with an arch & the walls had parallel windows each with frescos.

S. GIOVANNI IN LATERANO, ROME (AD 313-320)

A typical example of the early Christian
church is S. Giovanni in Laterano, Rome.
• It was the first church commissioned by
Emperor Constantine.
• It was built as the Cathedral of the Bishop
of Rome It was remodeled several times.
• The church consists of a central nave
flanked by two narrow isles and separated
from them by a monumental colonnade.
• The central nave rose above the isle roof,
and the inner isle rose above the outer.
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• The nave terminated at an apse. The structure was of brick faced concrete covered with simple truss
timber roof.

BAPTISTERIES – Early Christian baptisteries were originally used only for the sacrament of baptism,
and for this rite Roman circular temples and tombs supplied a most suitable type of building.

ALTERNATIVE CHURCH FORM

The rectangular basilica was not the only form
adopted for the early church
•Alternative more centralized plans, with a focus on
a central vertical axis rather than a
longitudinal horizontal one were also adopted
occasionally. The centralized churches
were of two broad types.
•They were the completely circular church.
•These had a circular or octagonal space surrounded
by an ambulatory . Examples of
these include Saint Constanza Rome, the lateran
Baptistery Rome and Saint Stefano
Rotondo.

The Baptistery of Constantine, Rome (A.D. 430–440) was built near the Lateran Church by Sixtus
III, and not by Constantine to whom it is generally attributed,
is among the oldest of Italian baptisteries, of which it was probably the model.
•It is octagonal in shape according to plan.
• The roof is supported by a two-storeyed ring of eight porphyry and marble columns
taken from old pagan buildings, while in the centre is an old Roman bath of green basalt

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converted into a font.

ROUND ALTERNATIVE FORM (ST. CONSTANZA)

This was a church originally designed as a Mausoleum
for Emperor Constantine’s daughter.
•It was designed as a centralized monument.
•It is symmetrical in plan with a domed central space.
•The domed central space was ringed by an arcade with
12 pairs of double colonnade.
•Beyond the arcade is an encircling ambulatory.
•A barrel vault is used to roof the ambulatory.

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